Tag Archives: focus

Here I am, back for my third try at Thinking Out Loud! I’ve had so many nice comments on my first two posts. I truly appreciate all of your kind words. Again, I haven’t really planned anything out so it’s more Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants time. Let’s see how this works out. Be sure to check in with the other posters on Amanda’s blog, Running With Spoons.

My mind is all over the place but then, that’s what my life feels like at the moment. Trying to get back to normal after surgery while still doing physical therapy and my home exercises is quite an adventure. Our house is not as conducive to moving around as my friend’s house was so that’s an issue. I’m working with it. Also dealing with a stubborn husband who won’t believe me that I can go down the steps to do the laundry. I’ll even concede to him walking down in front of me so I can get there. He’s still giving me a hard time. Hopefully my next Thinking Out Loud will be saying that “I’ve done the laundry!!”

~I think that all of the emotions that should have come out during my weeks of recuperation, have been stored up and are rearing their ugly heads now. I’m feeling very disjointed, disorganized and not myself in a lot of ways. I need to focus, which is a story anyone who has read BCDC for awhile has heard before.

~I feel a bit out of control with my food as well. NOT a good thing. I’m proud of how I’ve been doing with staying under my Weight Watchers goal for over a year. I probably shouldn’t be too hard on myself. I was told before the surgery that you need to eat to heal. I did that and now I find myself wanting to continue to eat that way. During recovery, I ate and ate and never gained a pound. Now I have to be more conscious. I know the best way to do that.

~Those of you who have visited with me before have seen this. This is my Weight Watchers journal. If I ever need to bring myself into better focus (not that I EVER seem to be able to get myself completely in focus-not for lack of trying!) I turn to my WW Journal. This is a tremendous tool in trying to keep myself on track and under control. I write down all of my foods and (in red) review what I’ve done and give myself pep talks. At times in my WW adventure, I’ve kept another journal where I tracked my thoughts and discussed my successes and missteps. I’m thinking I need to do that again. I’m really feeling a bit out of touch with what I need to do. I’m still about 12 pounds under my WW goal, but I love the way my clothes feel now and the fact that I have no trouble finding things to fit. I don’t want to let myself slip on that. I want to continue to feel this good.

~I have to commit to doing more cooking, not relying on eating out or ordering in. I can do it, I just need to make myself get back in the routine. I did do the Best thing in the world for me. Made a crock pot of my WW veggie soup and a crock pot of beans to go along with it yesterday. That always gets me back on track.

~As I type this, I seem to me motivating myself into a better mood, a clearer head and a more focused vision of what I need to do. I’ve always felt that blogging could work that kind of magic for me. Thinking Out Loud is definitely doing it. It’s allowing me to get things off my chest whether it’s about myself or something else. I like this idea.

Be sure to check out the other Thinkers over at Running With Spoons. Thursday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week!

That is certainly seems to be what I’ve done this week. I needed to do it and I do hope that it wasn’t too boring to any of you. I was seriously off of several tracks and needed to focus in. Those of you reading for a while know that focus is often one of my issues, but I feel I’ve succeeded this week and I’ve learned one important thing about myself.

On Thursday night, I finished off the impromptu soup I made the other day. As with most soups, it tasted better the second day. Topped with some shredded mozzarella and provolone. This is where the thing I’ve realized about myself comes in. Cheese. I can’t control cheese, I can’t keep it around. Sliced or shredded…if it’s in the fridge…it’s in my mouth. It’s sad, but I have to do something about my lack of control. My plan is this. I won’t buy any shredded cheese and will try not to buy too much sliced cheese. I can’t keep that out completely because Ralph likes it for sandwiches. I just have to make myself a rule that I will not eat it. It worked with chips. As of October 9, it will 19 months since I’ve had chips. It has helped.

My plan is that I will allow myself the grated Locatelli cheese, I can use that in stir fries and salad. I will also allow myself cottage cheese. Not technically a cheese, but it works well to give stir fries some “cheesiness.” I’ll try not to be boring about this, but I will keep myself in line by talking about it here. Wish me Luck!

Friday breakfast was overnight oats made with 1/2 cup of oats, 1/2 cup of almond milk and 1/2 cup of this pomegranate Lifeway Kefir. Topped with frozen blueberries before 1 minute and 30 seconds in the microwave. The Kefir is tangy and fruity and I love it in this.

Made the most of Friday morning getting some snacks ready…

Carrots and celery chopped and ready will help me stay on track.

Boiled up some eggs for lunches and snacks.

Friday’s lunch…chopped Romaine with cottage cheese and hard-cooked egg with Lots of ground black pepper. A side of carrots and celery. Forgot I had this little bowl that matches my Big bowl!

Saturday morning, I’ll find how successful I’ve been this week when I get to Weight Watchers for my weigh in. I’m feeling good…good food choices, lots of exercise. And the all important factor that I am sometimes missing…Focus! I’m looking forward to Success!! 😉

Perhaps I should change the name of Broken Cookies Don’t Count to Not Feeling the Focus or Focus? What Focus? I talk about it a lot. I do not seem to achieve it. It seemed that every time I tried to start a project yesterday, I got interrupted.

Riding my exercise bike. I was excited to finish one book and start another. Gail called and we talked a while and made plans to Skype later in the afternoon. I started to do the dishes (yes, dishes are sometimes left in the sink overnight. I really need to fire “The Help!”) My phone rings and it’s Gail, they’re ready to Skype…right then! It was great fun and she showed me all of the treasures she’s been getting for her cabin in Maine And some things she’s gotten for me! I’ll have lots to show you when she gets back from Florida.

Finished the dishes and had breakfast. Ok, so that’s backwards but here it is.

Lemon Chobani and Fiber One. So good. Gail taught me that combo and it’s great for breakfast, lunch or a snack.

I got dressed and started on cleaning/organizing a particularly offending dresser in the bedroom. Ralph needed to run some errands and wanted me to come along. With the bed scattered with stuff, we left on our errands.

Since we were in the shopping center where Subway is, he suggested lunch. I thought for a moment…Wednesday…Weigh in on Saturday??? I decided if I only got a 6 inch sub I’d be ok. I thought I might cave when I put in my order but I didn’t!! 🙂

A Veggie with provolone cheese and Southwest sauce. Very tasty. I felt satisfied and not guilty!

The Southwest sauce on my sub inspired me when it was time for dinner. I’ve mentioned that I’m trying to make my own dressings for salads. Here’s my latest.

Romaine, plum tomatoes, carrot, shredded cheese and pumpkin seeds. I’m out of almost everything! I need to get to the produce market! 😦 I forgot to add my crock pot black beans to the photo, but 1 cup of beans joined the fun!

All joined together in the wonderfulness that is the Big Purple Bowl! This was a really good salad. My dressing didn’t taste exactly like the Southwest sauce at Subway but it was delicious and I’ll make it again. I’m having such fun with this I think I’ll start a new feature. I think I’ll call it Dressing Up! That’ll confuse people! 😉

I think I’ve made a very wise decision to participate in NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. It gives me a goal to work towards. I’ve talked many times on BCDC about needing to focus. This will be an additional tool in that effort.

Goals For July 4th Weekend:

In an effort to not bite off more than I can chew, I’ll start small and just work on this upcoming weekend.

1. Spend at least 1 hour each day in sorting and packing.

Even though I’m not working, the weekends still seem different and are less structured than weekdays. I will try to get something accomplished in the area of S&P. I accomplished a lot last week, but then got off track. Making myself work on it on the weekend will help keep my mind in the game.

2. Stay on track with my eating.

Although I’ve been doing really well with my eating, I’m starting to feel like I’m headed out of control. With the Holiday weekend here, it could lead to trouble. I stocked up on fruit and Saturday will be my prep day. Cutting and chopping. I do really well with lots of fruit available to snack on. It keeps me away from other things.

3. Get back to meditation.

Meditation really helped me to focus when I was doing my 40 days. I need to do it again. I WILL do it again.

Today is one of those days where I woke up at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I’ve been up since 3am. This was happening a lot but hasn’t happened in a while. I find it very frustrating. I think getting back to my meditation will help this and get me better able to focus on my goals.

Friday started with my blood tests. Not being able to eat since 8pm Thursday night made me very hungry and Very thirsty. After exercising, Ralph suggested breakfast which was my go-to breakfast of late, scrambled eggs and sliced tomatoes.

After that I spent most of the day with Gail and Alice doing something that we love to do…”junking.” I was proud of myself that I did not buy a lot. I got one real treasure which unfortunately is out in the car so I can’t take a photo at the moment. I’ll share it tomorrow.

I’ll be off to my Weight Watchers meeting soon. I feel that I’ve been very good and hope for a good result at weigh-in.

No photos today, so I searched for one I hadn’t used before. It’s me with my favorite little guy, little Michael!